Enterprise 1550 lathe restore

[D.sebens]

I would guess your gibs need adjusted as a starting point. If it moves with no or little resistance I would say your sliding surfaces are too loose.

 

[JMan23]

I would guess your gibs need adjusted as a starting point. If it moves with no or little resistance I would say your sliding surfaces are too loose.

Ahh, that makes sense. How do you know how tight they should be? How much resistance should it have?

 

[Chipper5783]

Ahh, that makes sense. How do you know how tight they should be? How much resistance should it have?

I have the same lathe. I don’t have a cross slide lock, and I have never had to put a clamp on to make it hold. There is something goofy going on there. The gib has a number of small adjusting screws spaced along the slide (You could just crank one in tight as a lock). There is probably some preference - I like minimal resistance and a very slight clearance. Vibration/chatter isn’t good, the dials will move - that isn’t really a problem with the lathe itself. If there is that much vibration there is a problem with the setup.

Of course it needs to be clean and oiled. I used to always struggle to get the oil onto the cross slide (the oil fittings are on the side, the access is not great and it takes a bit of pressure. I finally broke down and bought a proper oiling gun (Reilang) - fantastic, wish I’d gotten it years earlier. I’m sure there are cheaper oiling tools, but anything that doesn’t work is going to be more expensive in the long run.

Vibes boring that cylinder? Sometimes a job will set up a vibration - you just have to play around and work it out. Try a larger BB, pull the bar in as short as possible, use a solid carbide bar, perhaps a smaller radius tool, more back rake, less back rake, set the tool slightly above center (the tool is going to deflect under load, if you have it set a few thou high then as it deflects the depth of cut decreases a little bit, if you are on center then the cut increases as the tool deflects), put a rubber strap around the cylinder, try a faster feed, perhaps a slower spindle speed (one thing I don’t really like about our lathe is that the slowest speed is 45rpm - some jobs it helps if you can slow right down - but I believe you have a vfd, so that may help). Look at ways to hold the cylinder more securely (at least change to the 4J chuck).

Let us know how you make out. David

 

[JMan23]

Thanks David, I was hoping you would chip in. I thought you had same lathe as me. I do believe the bb is too small for boring cylinders. I have no experience with a lathe so I'm figuring it out as I'm going. But having 6" out from the holder did have significantly more vibration than 3". But the cylinders are about 6". So I'll just need to run a larger bb. Thanks for explaining the tool positioning, I was having trouble figuring out why my cuts were going larger than I set. I bought a used 1-3/4" bb off ebay, I just didn't get everything to set it up yet. But should have it next week and I'll try that. I haven't tried anymore to get the 3j chuck off. So far I've been unsuccessful with that.
The power feed is broken at the moment (multiple gears stripped.) So I'm just manual feeding, just creeping the saddle along with the hand wheel.
Thanks everyone for all the help. Jason

 

[Dabbler]

@JMan23 That is some boring bar! When you get it working, I'd love to see a picture of you taking a cut!

I have a 15X60 lathe, so same class, etc.

 

[Harry Knutz]

Thanks David, I was hoping you would chip in. I thought you had same lathe as me. I do believe the bb is too small for boring cylinders. I have no experience with a lathe so I'm figuring it out as I'm going. But having 6" out from the holder did have significantly more vibration than 3". But the cylinders are about 6". So I'll just need to run a larger bb. Thanks for explaining the tool positioning, I was having trouble figuring out why my cuts were going larger than I set. I bought a used 1-3/4" bb off ebay, I just didn't get everything to set it up yet. But should have it next week and I'll try that. I haven't tried anymore to get the 3j chuck off. So far I've been unsuccessful with that.
The power feed is broken at the moment (multiple gears stripped.) So I'm just manual feeding, just creeping the saddle along with the hand wheel.
Thanks everyone for all the help. Jason

Looks like it's left handed.

 

[Harry Knutz]

Thanks David, I was hoping you would chip in. I thought you had same lathe as me. I do believe the bb is too small for boring cylinders. I have no experience with a lathe so I'm figuring it out as I'm going. But having 6" out from the holder did have significantly more vibration than 3". But the cylinders are about 6". So I'll just need to run a larger bb. Thanks for explaining the tool positioning, I was having trouble figuring out why my cuts were going larger than I set. I bought a used 1-3/4" bb off ebay, I just didn't get everything to set it up yet. But should have it next week and I'll try that. I haven't tried anymore to get the 3j chuck off. So far I've been unsuccessful with that.
The power feed is broken at the moment (multiple gears stripped.) So I'm just manual feeding, just creeping the saddle along with the hand wheel.
Thanks everyone for all the help. Jason

Get a can of a penetrating oil called "Kroil" it's the BEST! Liberally squirt plenty of it all over the mating surfaces and in and around the D-Locks. Wait a couple of days then pop it hard with a LARGE Dead Blow hammer like heavy equipt mechanics use. I know you are new to this so I will explain how to make sure the D locks are unlocked. There is a little mark that will line up when you have turned them to the right spot to make the cams clear the pins.

When that darker black mark lines up with the little mark that is at 12 O'clock it's unlocked. Shown in figure 5.

 

[JMan23]

Yeah I got a little excited when I found that BB. It was on ebay and the auction was ending in like 10 mins. So I bid on it before I realized it was a lefty. But I'll just run the lathe in rev with the Inverter.
Yes Harry that Kroll is GOOD stuff! I'll see what I can do with that camlock situation next week. I'll work on that some more and let yall know how I make out.

 

[JMan23]

I checked the adjustment on my cross slide and in order for it to start getting snug, this is how far I have to adjust it. There's a bolt on the front and back side that you normally would run in or out to adjust the play. The circle hole you see is where the bolt would go.
Would it be a good idea to shim between the cross slide and the gib to make a few thousandths?

 

[D.sebens]

Yes that would be fine. I had to do that on my bport clone I got recently. Just form the shim around the ends of the gib so it doesn’t walk out.